


Snow Day

by Silvarbelle



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, arboreal galra who has never even felt rain is a tad flummoxed by frozen fluffy water, he's a blade of marmora operative, it's a long and interesting story how he got there, sendak missed playing in snow and brought cairis home so she could play in it too, this Sendak is deception-and-disgrace's Sendak, while you were emerging as civilized beings he was studying the blade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 02:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17499833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvarbelle/pseuds/Silvarbelle
Summary: Cairis thinks Sendak has lost what's left of his mind when he suggests a snowball fight.  That doesn't stop her from getting into it.





	Snow Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ThatForestPrince](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatForestPrince/gifts).



> This Sendak is the BoM double-agent Sendak as played by deception-and-disgrace on Tumblr. He's a gem. So's the mun.

Sendak had _missed_ snow.

 

So many decaphoebs spent aboard ships, cleaving through space – and planets – as a spy, and then a true commander, and now a Blade… all of that, but the one constant had been: snow.

 

Having taken Cairis to Koras 53; to Sraax. He wanted to go home for a little bit and wanted her to meet his family and to see the planet that had shaped his early life.

 

He had not predicted her reaction to snow.

 

When they’d first arrived and she’d stepped down into it, she’d given a startled squawk and floundered a bit – kept upright only because she’d caught hold of his arm to balance herself.

 

“What is this?!” she yelped.

 

That caught him by surprise. “…You don’t know what _snow_ is?”

 

“Snow – wait; the fluffy frozen water that some planets are covered in during what is known as ‘winter’? Is _that_ why it’s so cold here? It’s winter time?”

 

“No – well, yes – but this planet is eternally winter. It’s an ice planet. Snow is constant, here.”

 

She’d eyed him and then snorted. “That’s why you have such thick fur.”

 

He’d grinned. “Yes. Come on.”

 

They’d gotten settled and she’d begun meeting and interacting with his family and the other Xarrukans.

 

But now, Sendak was bored and wanted to be out in the snow he had missed.

 

Coming up to where she currently sat, typing on a holo-keyboard, he settled beside her and smiled when she hummed and pressed her leg against him.

 

“Are you enjoying the visit thus far?” he asked.

 

“Absolutely! I have – well, I’m no longer a reporter, but my _skills_ are coming in handy,” she admitted. “I’m helping organize and update news reports for the clan. I honestly don’t mind; I’m useful and I want to help.”

 

“Very good,” he murmured, the purr of satisfaction evident in his voice. “Are you at a place where you can stop for a bit?”

 

Cairis shrugged and glanced at him. “Yes. This isn’t going to be finished before we leave. I promised to get as much done as I could. I’m introducing a hunting-gathering app to the archives now to do most of the compilation work. Why?”

 

“I’m bored,” he admitted, and grinned when she laughed. “I want to take a walk and I would enjoy your company.”

 

“…in the snow?”

 

“In the snow. Properly covered up, you’ll be comfortable.”

 

Cairis considered it for a bit, and then grinned and nodded. “Alright, yes. I could stand to get off my plump rump and exercise. I’ll certainly whittle it down a bit if I go trudging through that frozen fluff pile.”

 

“Whether it does or doesn’t change size, I’m fond of it,” Sendak teased. “But if you’re certain, then… follow me.”

 

He led her to the coatroom and they got bundled up in outdoor gear. They were already wearing thermal regulating suits underneath regular clothing, so they simply piled insulating coats and gloves and boots on top of that. They pulled the fur-lined hoods of their coats up, slipped the filter masks over their lower faces, and went out into the cold.

 

Cairis walked with Sendak in the lovely, pale twilight of an oncoming evening. They were safe enough doing so and the landscape _was_ breathtaking – in more ways than one.

 

_Thank Indri that we have these masks,_ she thought, _else my lungs would be frozen before I could get to the tree line!_

 

All of the gear she wore, and she was still just barely warm. She had never before wished she had thicker fur, but now she did.

 

They walked a while and then her attention was caught by an ice formation. Some insect or another, resistant to the cold, had strung up a web of some sort that had frozen over. She went over to inspect it, admiring the size and the architecture—

 

—she screeched as she toppled forward, face-planting into the snow as something smacked into the back of her hooded head.

 

She lay where she’d fallen, stunned at the sudden attack and being almost buried in the snow.

 

A few ticks later, Sendak had hold of her. He’d charged across the clearing when she’d fallen and simply lay there. Grabbing onto her, he lifted her up and turned her over to rest against his leg while he knelt down in the snow.

 

“Cairis? Cairis!” He was frantic as he brushed snow off her face. “Are you alright? _Cairis!_ ”

 

She twitched, her brow furrowing, and blinked open her lovely yellow eyes. Snow fell from her lashes as she looked up at him, confused.

 

“What hit me?” she asked. “I’m fine! I’m… fine. It didn’t even hurt. I’m… buried in snow, but I’m fine.”

 

Sendak closed his eye, giving a sigh of relief. He then opened it to look down at her and felt his cheeks heat.

 

“Ahhhhh… that would have been me,” he confessed. He winced at the hurt filtering into her gaze. “Not—! I didn’t mean anything harmful, Cairis. I swear to you I wasn’t trying to harm you. It’s simply been so long since I’ve had a snowball fight that when the idea occurred to me, I didn’t actually think it through.”

 

“A _what_ fight?” Her tone was cranky as she began struggling to get upright.

 

Sendak stood easily and helped her up onto his feet. He held up a finger and then bent to scoop snow into his cybernetic hand. He straightened and held the snow before her, showing her how to pack it and shape it into a sphere.

 

He winced beneath his mask when she gave him a _look_.

 

“You weaponized _snow_ ,” she remarked, her tone dry as dust. “Why does this not surprise me?”

 

“It’s hardly a unique thing,” he muttered, and tossed the snowball over his shoulder. It fell into the ground cover several yards away with a puff of sound. “Many species do this on snow planets.”

 

“I can’t decide if I missed out by living on a decaphoeb-round temperate planet.”

 

He grinned. “I have to say you did. There’s nothing quite like the exhilaration of a snowball fight.” He hesitated. Then: “Want to have one?”

 

“Pardon?”

 

His eye crinkled visibly with the force of his grin. “A snowball fight! Want to have one with me? You can discover what you’ve missed out on!”

 

“One dusting into the snow was enough for me, thanks,” she denied.

 

“Only because you were unprepared! Knowing what’s what now, you’ll have better odds against me.”

 

Cairis laughed. “There are _no_ odds where I win against you.”

 

“How about for length of survival time?”

 

She paused to consider his suggestions. It was beyond obvious that he really wanted this snowball fight to happen. She knew he’d been feeling cooped up and needed to expend some energy – and merely taking a walk together in the snow wasn’t cutting it.

 

Knowing she would probably regret it, she nodded and said, “I give it five doboshes of me evading you before you put me down.”

 

“Too meager towards yourself,” he chided, his tone playful. “I’d say ten at most. You’re _not_ helpless – or hopeless.”

 

“Ten is you spoiling me and _allowing_ the evasion, if not a victory.”

 

He _grinned_. “If I promise to not allow such…?”

 

“Then, if I make it to ten, I have no choice but to accept that you were right.”

 

“Mmmm – a victory at any angle. What do I get when I win?”

 

That he’d subtly backed her against a tree and was now looming over her, his voice low and smoky, made her shiver as she took a steadying breath.

 

“My sincere congratulations?” she offered, looking up at him. The mask hid her cheeky smile. “If I’m still able to speak afterward, that is.”

 

“Do you expect to be that worn out?”

 

“You don’t strike me as the lenient sort. I expect vigorous exertion from you.”

 

His stare was hot, intense. His body shifted; leaned closer toward her.

 

“Do you prefer ‘vigorous’?” he asked. “Or do you prefer a… gentler pace?”

 

“I’m flexible,” she whispered, “depending on the setting and the mood.”

 

He lifted a hand; brushed the backs of his fingers along her masked cheek and then down to circle his fingers lightly around her neck, slipping beneath the scarf wound around it. He used the pad of his thumb to tip her chin upward a little.

 

“Flexible is good,” Sendak murmured. “It allows for lots of opportunity and… choice.”

 

Cairis’ throat clicked on a dry swallow.

 

Sendak smirked and brushed his thumb over her masked lips, and then retreated.

 

“We’ll use the trees as cover,” he decided. “I’ll make a stockpile of snowballs – you do the same. When they run out, we make them as we go until one of us takes the other down. I suggest you stretch before we begin.”

 

Shivering for reasons other than cold, Cairis nearly called him a cheat for putting her in this condition prior to their snowball fight. She chose to follow his advice instead; put distance between them among the trees and kept him in sight while she got to work.

 

It took her some time to figure out how to pack the snow into a rough spherical shape, but she finally managed it. She built up a decent pile and then stretched as she’d long ago been taught, making herself more limber.

 

“You ready?” he called out, not even hidden behind a tree.

 

“As I’ll ever be!” she called back.

 

And then, she dodged when he flung a snowball at her.

 

The snowball fight between them was surprisingly intense as she realized after only a few ticks that he really _meant_ it: was play-fighting with her, but it was still a _fight_.

 

Cairis put all of her effort and skill into not only evading his snowy missiles, but hurling her own back at him. A few times, she managed to get in a strike that dusted him with snow, but nothing that knocked him on his ass. He simply turned to avoid taking a hit to his face, but then kept on.

 

She took more strikes from him, though, as expected; felt them tag her with every forceful throw that landed on her. She wondered what the bruises would look like later.

 

Eventually, they ran out of their stockpiles – her sooner than he did, as he knew better to ration them. But they were both down to nothing and had to dart and dodge among the trees, making snowballs on the run as they each tried to attack and defend.

 

Cairis was laughing despite the cold and the soreness of her muscles. She was having fun! She’d have to thank him later for teaching her about snowball fights.

 

The fight, however, quickly became one-sided. Sendak was simply too cunning a tactician to stand against for long. It became a game of Hunter and Hunted; Cairis doing her level best to evade him.

 

She darted, she dodged, she ran – and screeched when she was tackled off her feet.

 

Sendak got her down on her back, the two of them nestled down into the ground cover. With one hand braced beside her head, he pinned her with the other hand clamped around her throat – tighter than the previous grip; a warning that his blood was running hot and he could damage her if he felt like it.

 

Cairis was not entirely opposed to such a grip. She lay quiescent beneath him, her lips parted beneath her mask, watching him.

 

Sendak was not unaware of her interest as he straddled her. His grip tightened a bit more and he leaned into her.

 

Cairis bit her lower lip and lowered her lashes even as she tipped her head back into the snow, submitting to him.

 

“Look at me.”

 

Her eyes flashed open again and she looked up at him.

 

They stared at each other for long, silent – heavy – moments.

 

Then: he relented; released her throat to rest the flat of his hand beside her head; mirroring his other hand.

 

He lowered himself to nuzzle his forehead against hers; their fur-lined hoods forming a cozy cocoon.

 

“What do you think of snowball fights?” he asked her, his voice quiet.

 

“I could become fond of them,” she admitted, her arms stealing up his sides to hook into a hug around him.

 

Sendak smiled.

 

“Good,” he murmured, satisfaction and victory smug in his voice. “Now: it’s time for us to get up and return home before you freeze into a block of Cairis-shaped ice.”

 

“And whose fault would that be?” she snarked, releasing the hug of him.

 

“Your ancestors for not giving you a lineage with proper fur,” he shot back.

 

She couldn’t help but laugh and he grinned; pleased to have won the sound from her.

 

He lifted up, then, and got easily to his feet. He held out a hand to her and she accepted, allowing him to help her up.

 

They stood looking at each other for a few more moments. Then, he took hold of her hand and began leading her back to the house.

 

“By the way,” he said, glancing at her, “you evaded me for nearly _twenty_ doboshes.”

 

Her eyes widened. “I… did?”

 

“You did. I’m quite proud of you. For a first timer, you did very well.”

 

“I was particularly inspired,” she drawled.

 

He laughed. “I’m glad of it, but I _did_ win.”

 

“We both knew you would.”

 

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want a prize.”

 

The look she gave Sendak made him grin. Cairis was quite a bit younger than he was, but she was no kit in her first fur.

 

They made it back to the house and got out of their snow-caked outer gear. Sendak drew a shivering Cairis over to the heat stove and snagged up one of the many throw blankets scattered around. He tucked it around her and then went to make them something hot to drink.

 

“Set those down for a moment,” she murmured when he returned.

 

Raising the brow over his organic eye, Sendak nevertheless set down the mugs. “Certainly, but why?”

 

She grinned at him and opened the blanket, her arms raised, clearly inviting him into the warm space.

 

“I thought I might give you that prize, now,” she teased him.

 

Grinning, Sendak stepped into her embrace, sliding his arms around her. He lifted her up against him, given that she was a foot shorter than he was. She laughed and settled her legs around his hips; her arms around his neck. The blanket cocooned them in warmth.

 

“Having you in my life _is_ the prize,” he said gallantly, “but I’ll take a bonus reward. I’d be a fool not to.”

 

“And you’re no fool,” she purred, and drew him into a kiss.

 

Sendak – no fool, indeed – went into it without argument. 


End file.
